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Advance Notices

It is two days until my new novel Pig Iron is published.

The latest reviews and interviews can be read over to the the right of this blog, under 'Pig Iron Press Cuttings'.

Pig Iron promo #3

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Pig Iron / The Guardian review

 

Pig Iron by Benjamin Myers

By Cathi Unsworth

Pig Iron is a novel of consequences. It's the story of John-John Wisdom, just released from a young offenders institute, and living in a run-down flat on the outskirts of Durham. He's got a job selling ice-creams, and a dream of following his Traveller's blood out of this place. It's also the story of his father, Mac, legendary bare-knuckle boxer, and the life he led on the clandestine circuit; related in tandem by John-John's mother, the daughter of sea-coalers, from "when the coal washed up on the beach … Back before it all changed".

John-John's job takes him into an impoverished estate "where the air is tight. High tensile. Mega-para". Here he meets Maria, insolent, gum-snapping beauty. Fascinated by their mutual otherness, they tentatively fall in love – and Maria's transgression from the brutal codes of her insular world costs them both dear. At the same time, Mac's transgressions and their shattering consequences are revealed.

Myers's poetic vernacular brims with that quality most sadly lost in the Thatcher years – humanity.

(Review linked here)

'Happy Birthday, A Clockwork Orange'

"Anthony Burgess's diabolical tale of juvenile ultraviolence is 50. Five decades on, the novel holds a lofty position as one of pop culture's most influential and enduring pieces of literature..."

Here's a piece I wrote for The Guardian today...

Pig Iron promo clip #2

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PIG IRON promo film #1

It turns out I am a real person who actually exists.

This is what I sound, look and read like.

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